THE GIFT OF SABBATH
This is the second in the series, "Wholeness in Christ" which looks at holistic self-care (mind, body and soul) as a spiritual discipline.
"... By the seventh day, God had finished his work. On the seventh day, he rested from all his work. God blessed the seventh day. He made it a Holy Day because on that day, he rested from his work, all the creating God had done."
Genesis 2:1-4 (The Message)
" Then Jesus said, 'The Sabbath was made to serve us; we weren't made to serve to Sabbath
Mark 2:23-28 (The Message)
I live in a house of playing cards. Not literally, of course. When I think about how hard I work to keep the different parts of my life in balance as I live and die by my planner, I realize how exhausted I at the end of the week after scrambling to put everything back together, because life happens.
Life happens, with little warning and with great gusto. Just when I'm sure I've got my act together, it comes rushing through with amazing force and scatters all the cards.
While I've found a roll of tape and a glue gun will help hold a real house of playing cards together under all sorts of conditions, personally I find I need the gift of Sabbath to keep all the pieces of my life in balance.
"On the seventh day, God rested."
I have this image of God changing out of his cosmos creating work clothes, slipping into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and his favorite Birkenstocks and then climbing into a hammock hung between two sequoias in the Garden with the Good Book as he listens to Rued Lunggard's "Music of the Spheres" on his i-pod. (This is the twisted sense of humor God gave me, so get over it.)
Scripture doesn't tell us what God did on his day off, but we do know God thought it was such a great idea, that, because he had done it, human beings should do it, too. So important an idea that God included it in the Ten Commandments.
There's two ways we can look at this commandment to keep the Sabbath holy (set apart). The first way is to approach it in a very legalistic way. When it becomes one more thing to do to prove how righteous we are, which is how the Jewish religious leaders Jesus encountered Mark 2:23-28 treated it. They were so chained to the letter of the law, filling the observance of this holy day of rest with "Thou shalls" and "Thou shall nots" that they were slaves to it.
Our culture has a problem with doing. We are so goal-oriented and purpose driven to the point of addiction to busyness. I realized how true that was in my own life every time I walked a prayer labyrinth.
A labyrinth is like a circular maze. It's meant to be a form of meditation or prayer in motion that focuses one on the presence of God, but for me, in a long time, the focus was about getting to the center and back to where I began. The looping path of the labyrinth winds toward the center, and just when I thought I was going to reach the center, it loops back to the outer edge. It just seemed easier and quicker to skip the path and walk directly to the center, spend a minute or two there for a short prayer and head back across the loops. I had done it, and yet it wasn't a very satisfying experience.
Jesus' response to them gives us another perspective on the Sabbath based on the spirit of the law, love -- human beings were not created to serve the Sabbath; the Sabbath was created to serve human beings. The Sabbath is a gift of love given to us by our Creator.
"On the seventh day, God rested." God took a break from creating, and spent a day of being. Being is shifting from our mindset from purpose and activity and to-do lists to being present in the moment.
For me, the light bulb came on when I realized that walking a labyrinth was not about accomplishing a goal, getting to the center, but the journey to the center. When I become less concerned about the end of the journey and opened my awareness to where I was on the path, it was a different experience. I was able to slow down my pace and my mind. I felt the grit and give of the sand of the path underneath my feet. I saw God in the colors and textures of the autumn forest and the deer moving silently underneath the trees. I listened to the birds and the sound of wind blowing through the leaves. It was as if I was enveloped in God's grace. It was an experience of Sabbath.
Sabbath is a gift of God. It is time of rest, renewal, refreshment, recreation and re-creation. It is an invitation to take a break from doing and be in connection with God, with friends and family and with the totality of who we are -- mind, body and soul.
It is one of the few things I know that will nourish our total being. It feeds our souls as we worship together in the Body of Christ. In the presence of God, we are healed, comforted and revitalized and strengthened for the week to come.
Our minds and bodies are given a break from the stress of the working week. We have the opportunity to lay down, for a little while, our worries and that mental list have-to's and can't-forget-tos that race around in our heads. Our minds are renewed as we are freed to see life from a different perspective and engage with possibilities and dreams.
We get a chance to catch up on some sleep through a Sunday afternoon nap and enjoy life through recreation. A walk or a bike ride becomes less of part of our exercise routine and more of being with friends and family, being out in nature and being in motion, experiencing the gift of our physical self.
The Sabbath is a gift of love from God, a time for holistic self-care. Jesus and his disciples picked grain from to fields to feed themselves on the Sabbath. God invites us on this day, and any day we need a bit of Sabbath to get us through our lives, to accept the gifts of God's grace to take a break from the busyness of our world and be feed, mind, body and soul.
"... By the seventh day, God had finished his work. On the seventh day, he rested from all his work. God blessed the seventh day. He made it a Holy Day because on that day, he rested from his work, all the creating God had done."
Genesis 2:1-4 (The Message)
" Then Jesus said, 'The Sabbath was made to serve us; we weren't made to serve to Sabbath
Mark 2:23-28 (The Message)
I live in a house of playing cards. Not literally, of course. When I think about how hard I work to keep the different parts of my life in balance as I live and die by my planner, I realize how exhausted I at the end of the week after scrambling to put everything back together, because life happens.
Life happens, with little warning and with great gusto. Just when I'm sure I've got my act together, it comes rushing through with amazing force and scatters all the cards.
While I've found a roll of tape and a glue gun will help hold a real house of playing cards together under all sorts of conditions, personally I find I need the gift of Sabbath to keep all the pieces of my life in balance.
"On the seventh day, God rested."
I have this image of God changing out of his cosmos creating work clothes, slipping into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and his favorite Birkenstocks and then climbing into a hammock hung between two sequoias in the Garden with the Good Book as he listens to Rued Lunggard's "Music of the Spheres" on his i-pod. (This is the twisted sense of humor God gave me, so get over it.)
Scripture doesn't tell us what God did on his day off, but we do know God thought it was such a great idea, that, because he had done it, human beings should do it, too. So important an idea that God included it in the Ten Commandments.
There's two ways we can look at this commandment to keep the Sabbath holy (set apart). The first way is to approach it in a very legalistic way. When it becomes one more thing to do to prove how righteous we are, which is how the Jewish religious leaders Jesus encountered Mark 2:23-28 treated it. They were so chained to the letter of the law, filling the observance of this holy day of rest with "Thou shalls" and "Thou shall nots" that they were slaves to it.
Our culture has a problem with doing. We are so goal-oriented and purpose driven to the point of addiction to busyness. I realized how true that was in my own life every time I walked a prayer labyrinth.
A labyrinth is like a circular maze. It's meant to be a form of meditation or prayer in motion that focuses one on the presence of God, but for me, in a long time, the focus was about getting to the center and back to where I began. The looping path of the labyrinth winds toward the center, and just when I thought I was going to reach the center, it loops back to the outer edge. It just seemed easier and quicker to skip the path and walk directly to the center, spend a minute or two there for a short prayer and head back across the loops. I had done it, and yet it wasn't a very satisfying experience.
Jesus' response to them gives us another perspective on the Sabbath based on the spirit of the law, love -- human beings were not created to serve the Sabbath; the Sabbath was created to serve human beings. The Sabbath is a gift of love given to us by our Creator.
"On the seventh day, God rested." God took a break from creating, and spent a day of being. Being is shifting from our mindset from purpose and activity and to-do lists to being present in the moment.
For me, the light bulb came on when I realized that walking a labyrinth was not about accomplishing a goal, getting to the center, but the journey to the center. When I become less concerned about the end of the journey and opened my awareness to where I was on the path, it was a different experience. I was able to slow down my pace and my mind. I felt the grit and give of the sand of the path underneath my feet. I saw God in the colors and textures of the autumn forest and the deer moving silently underneath the trees. I listened to the birds and the sound of wind blowing through the leaves. It was as if I was enveloped in God's grace. It was an experience of Sabbath.
Sabbath is a gift of God. It is time of rest, renewal, refreshment, recreation and re-creation. It is an invitation to take a break from doing and be in connection with God, with friends and family and with the totality of who we are -- mind, body and soul.
It is one of the few things I know that will nourish our total being. It feeds our souls as we worship together in the Body of Christ. In the presence of God, we are healed, comforted and revitalized and strengthened for the week to come.
Our minds and bodies are given a break from the stress of the working week. We have the opportunity to lay down, for a little while, our worries and that mental list have-to's and can't-forget-tos that race around in our heads. Our minds are renewed as we are freed to see life from a different perspective and engage with possibilities and dreams.
We get a chance to catch up on some sleep through a Sunday afternoon nap and enjoy life through recreation. A walk or a bike ride becomes less of part of our exercise routine and more of being with friends and family, being out in nature and being in motion, experiencing the gift of our physical self.
The Sabbath is a gift of love from God, a time for holistic self-care. Jesus and his disciples picked grain from to fields to feed themselves on the Sabbath. God invites us on this day, and any day we need a bit of Sabbath to get us through our lives, to accept the gifts of God's grace to take a break from the busyness of our world and be feed, mind, body and soul.
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